Playing St. Barbara (Szczepanski) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Playing St. Barbara by Marian Szczepanski is a great book, a stunning debut novel that shimmers with unforgettable characters while casting necessary light on a dark chapter in American history. Drawn to the social and political history of coal mining in southwestern Pennsylvania because of her personal connection (her grandparents were immigrant miners), Szczepanski focuses on the lives of the mothers, daughters, and wives of coal miners. Telling their stories, she illuminates the terrible burdens forced on coal mining families and the immense spirit required to endure, much less thrive, in such an environment...Szczepanski made a believer out of me—I believe in the possibility of light and grace, even in the darkest of times, and I am more enthralled than ever by the powerful stories of women: sisters, mothers, daughters, and friends.
Nina Sankovitch - Huffington Post

 
Playing St. Barbara is a beautifully written piece of historical fiction set in a 1930s Pennsylvania mining town...Szczepanski brilliantly weaves in the legend of St. Barbara, patroness of miners, through an annual town pageant. Her four main characters' lives also eerily mirror the seventh-century legend...Themes of poverty, alcoholism, women's liberation, family loyalty, heritage, sacrifice, race and more play out, while each woman narrates her own story of living in the unsettled Great Depression era...Though this story takes place 80 years ago, some of the same themes haunt our news headlines today. Book clubs across the country can read Playing St. Barbara and discuss the historical novel on a wider scale, comparing and contrasting to our world today, while using these four strong female characters to give us hope in a world that is still often confused.
Margo L. Dill - The News-Gazette


Clare and each of her daughters are the little people caught up in the sweep of history, but Szczepanski brings their fictional voices to a larger audience.... Playing St. Barbara equally pays tribute to Szczepanski's grandmothers and all the women who call a hotline hoping for a little hope of their own.
Tarra Gaines - Culture Map Houston